The Republican and Democratic candidates edged closer after he swept the primaries in all five Northeastern states and she cemented her lead

Philadelphia: Republican Donald Trump yesterday declared himself the “presumptive nominee” after sweeping presidential primaries in all five Northeastern states while his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton also cemented her lead, bringing them closer to a monumental duel for the White House.

Trump (69) posted big wins in Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. In all the five states, Trump bagged more than 50 per cent of the votes. “This to me was our biggest night,” the real estate tycoon said in his victory speech. “I consider myself the presumptive nominee.”

Though the clean sweep gave a big boost to Trump’s White House ambition, he still needs over 300 delegates to reach the magical number of 1,237 delegates required to bag the Republican presidential nomination.

“As far as I am concerned, this race is over,” Trump said, adding that his rival John Kasich, who has 153 delegates to his kitty, is simply wasting his time. Kasich came second in four of the five states but could earn just five delegates.

After the latest primary results, Trump’s main Republican rival Ted Cruz has 569 delegates and his path to nomination before the July convention is impossible. Cruz came last in four of the five states.

Despite notching up more delegates and dominating the media agenda, Trump’s ultimate claim on the nomination remains far from certain. The final winning margins will be crucial in deciding whether he can reach the 1,237 delegates needed before the Republican convention in July.

On the other hand, Clinton (68), won in four states — Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware and Pennsylvania — while her rival Bernie Sanders secured victory in Rhode Island.

After registering four wins, she appeared to be headed towards being the first ever woman to win the presidential nomination of a major political party. The former Secretary of State now has 2,141 delegates while Sanders holds 1,321.

Clinton’s victories build on her resounding success in New York, stunted Sanders’ momentum and left him fending off calls from Clinton supporters to fold his campaign so that she can start exclusively targeting Republicans.

At her victory speech, Clinton extended an olive branch to Sanders in an apparent effort to begin the process of unifying the Democratic Party behind her candidacy. “I applaud Sanders and his millions of supporters for challenging us to get unaccountable money out of politics and putting greater emphasis to closing the gap of inequality,” she said. “I know together we will get that done.”

The next primary is scheduled in Indiana next Tuesday.

Indian-American loses elections

An Indian-American Democratic legislator in Maryland has suffered a humiliating defeat in the party’s primary election for a seat in the US House of Representatives. Kumar Barve (57), who was the House Majority Leader from 2003-2014 and now Chairman of Maryland House Environment and Transportation Committee, received just two per cent of the total votes polled in a nine-person Democratic primary race for a seat in the US House of Representatives. The primary election was won by Jamie Raskin who received 33 per cent of the votes.